‘Killjoy Goes to Hell’ is the 2nd part in the soft reboot ‘Killjoy’ series and the middle part of a current trilogy story picking up 3 years after the events of the the last film.

The plot? ‘Killjoy’ is summoned after previously being defeated and initially thinks he has an easy escape back to the real world, that is until it’s revealed to him that he isnt in fact on earth. He’s in Hell, and has been summoned to stand trial for his lack of evilness. The opposition use his total fumbling of his last gig as an example that he isnt competent or evil enough to maintain his ‘Demon’ status and that he should be sentenced to ‘removal’ and his position reassigned to someone more competent.

While trying to defend his position, Killjoy resummons his demon posse from the last film and begs them to testify in his favour, which they attempt to do with mixed to poor results. Meanwhile back on earth, Sandie (the lone survivor from the previous film) is locked in a mental hospital stuck with a chronic case of laughter that wont shift, the FBI are trying to pin the dissapearences and murders from 3 years prior on her, and she cant stop laughing long enough to tell them the truth…No matter how farfetched it all seems.

The two plotlines naturally intertwine, when…in a move of desperation, Killjoy realises Sandie is still alive, and sends the posse back to earth to reclaim her.

And…quite honestly? Im just delighted that this thing more or less keeps pace with the previous entry. The last one was a breath of fresh air, and while this entry *is* a little less…unique. It still manages to keep and build on a standard that really pulled this series out of a mire.

The scripts a little weaker here than last time, Im not a big fan of ‘Main character goes on trial’ narratives, and this thing clocking in at 90 minutes, does rather outstay its welcome by the credits. Tonally its absolute fine, Still really great fun, if anything they’ve really nicely built on the characters, given them a bit more complexity, made the humour a bit less ‘catch all’ and a bit more focussed. I actually quite enjoyed the moments the gang acted as a team, it reminded me of the more engaging moments in the ‘Puppet Master’ movies where the puppets would work together to get a job done.

I’d say if they’d lopped 15-20 minutes off this thing, it’d have been a star higher for me. the pacing during more action oriented scenes are dleightfully good fun, but outside of those (particualrly in the trial sequences) the pace of events slows right down, leaving the cast to carry those WHOLE scenes by themselves…which they do amicably…but its still not enough really.

The direction and cine is again quite solid for a ‘Full Moon’ production, i’d say if anything things are slightly more polished than the previous entry. and I really enjoyed the look and feel of the previous entry. Once again we have a good range of colour work combined with some decent styalisation to help create a distinct vision, that feels filmic and distinct. There are still moments where it feels a little cheap. Segments where the sets look a little polystyriney and the CG looks creaky, but thats kind of to be expected.

The cine too has had a bit of a boost, composition is even more solid than previously, the sequences continue to get more and more creative, though the edit has slackened off a bit, which hasnt helped the slower aspects of the scripting. Which is a bit of a shame.

The cast must have needed to see a chiropractor after they shot this thing given the weight of the whole film they seemed to be carrying, ALL the characters really get to grown and develop here, and while its a shame there isnt really any gorey or funny kills in this thing until the very end of the 3rd act, in the absence of violence, we MORE than get it made up for by turning this into some kind of absurdist, dry but dark comedy.

Our core group of Trent Haaga, Victoria Demare, Al Burke and Tai Chan Ngo ALL get MORE than a decent opportunity here to expand, develop and own their characters, and they all do it with great relish, bringing a real zeal of animation and energy to their roles on top of working with some fantastic dialogue, they honestly really make the movie, they do a fantastic job here, and if this kind of energy and character development can carry over to the next film, I think we may have something really special on our hands.

For the middle part in what is currently a trilogy, ‘Killjoy Goes to Hell’ does suffer a little bit from ‘middle picture syndrome’ Unable to coast on setting everything up like the first entry and unable to do anything grand, lest it spoil the big finale. It ends up basically just having to keep the motor running. In that sense, its a success; I really quite enjoyed this one. But its absolutley a flawed production that is a little slow going in places, a little rickety by 2023 standards on the production front and didnt quite satisfy in the same way the previous entry did.

Still a very fun picture and MILES ahead of anything else ‘Full Moon’ was putting out around this time, Im honestly really surprised by this franchise, given how rocky it started, Its really starting to come into its own and find its voice. Worth checking out.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/killjoy-goes-to-hell/